The John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford

Innovation | Entrepreneurship | Leadership

Kevin Weston

Project: A sustainable, replicable non-profit business model for community-based media, with a focus on the San Francisco Bay Area.

As a paperboy for The Oakland Tribune, Kevin Weston admired from afar its owner, Robert C. Maynard, the first black publisher of a major metropolitan daily. But little did he know that he would end up a journalist. Weston’s interest grew out of experiences he had as a community college student organizer. When he noticed that the college newspaper misrepresented the message he and others were trying to get across, he started writing for the paper. Weston went on to work for the most influential ethnic and black media in the Bay Area: New America Media, the Post Newspaper Group and the San Francisco Bayview and he credits leaders of those organizations as mentors who helped him become a serious journalist and allowed him to innovate. Weston, who studied political science at San Francisco State University, returned to New America Media in 2000 to co-manage its pioneering youth media platform, YO! Youth Outlook. He helped lead New America Media’s transition into the digital age and in 2009 became director of new media.

The John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford foster journalistic innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership. Each year, we give up to twenty outstanding individuals from around the world the resources to pursue and test their ideas for improving the quality of news and information reaching the public.